Jacquet can still believe in it

The Frenchman is in the semifinals and given the level he’s showing this week, he has a real shot to play for.

Last year, it was Royer who knocked Rublev out of this tournament, and Jacquet will try to draw inspiration from that. The Frenchman played another great match against Marozsan and wasn’t even affected physically. I’m basically going to repeat almost word for word what I wrote in the last analysis because I still believe it. He doesn’t look like he’s overplaying; he’s just very well prepared mentally and tactically for his matches and doesn’t seem to be running above his usual level. He’s not burning much nervous energy either because he doesn’t celebrate much and just focuses on playing his match. That’s exactly what you need to do to keep going far. And obviously, for tomorrow, you can’t help but feel he’s capable of doing it.

There are even more reasons to believe it after Rublev’s match today against Gaston. The Russian was extremely nervous and had to battle for a long time against an excellent Gaston. It’s a good win because the level was high, in my opinion, but on the other hand, given how he handled the key moments and the frustration Rublev showed throughout the match, it doesn’t really make you want to trust him. It somewhat puts a damper on his good start to the tournament because he had played a perfect first round. Here, he dropped quite a bit in my estimation, but the opposition was tough as well.

He now faces a much more classic profile, with Jacquet, who likes to dictate play and who’s also been countering superbly this week. The Frenchman especially must avoid being on the back foot for most of the match, and we can count on him to try to surprise and attack Rublev whenever possible. That should be the main game plan. Given the confidence he’s showing this week and his level of play, we can at least believe in a tight, hard-fought match, right?